The Sunday Circle: What Are You Working On This Week?

The Sunday Circle is the weekly check-in where I ask the creative-types who follow this blog to weigh in about their goals, inspirations, and challenges for the coming week. The logic behind it can be found here. Want to be involved? It’s easy – just answer three questions in the comments or on your own blog (with a link in the comments here, so that everyone can find them).

After that, throw some thoughts around about other people’s projects, ask questions if you’re so inclined. Be supportive above all.

Then show up again next Sunday when the circle updates next, letting us know how you did on your weekly project and what you’ve got coming down the pipe in the coming week (if you’d like to part of the circle, without subscribing to the rest of the blog, you can sign-up for reminders via email here).

MY CHECK-IN

What am I working on this week?

The main focus this week is notebook draft of Median Survival Time, which is rolling towards its midpoint and a major shift in direction. I’ve now got to take a character that has been proactively running and fighting for much of the last three chapters and get them to sit still for a very long time. Lot s more talking than they’re used too, lots more betrayal on the horizon. 

What’s inspiring me this week?

To my considerable surprise, the Shadowrun Returns computer game. It’s not the most advanced of games in terms of its dynamics, but the plotting and atmosphere have routinely made me smile as advanced through the story. It takes a whole bunch of weird-ass worldbuilding in the form of fantasy cyberpunk and builds upon that, taking us on a tour of classic noir tropes and cyberpunk conceits. This has the potential to go hugely wrong at so many ways, but the little details are great–character’s feel like they’ve got a presence beyond their appearance in the game, and there’s always a neat detail or two to pick up when you interact with them.

What action do I need to take?

I’ve been meaning to pitch a conference paper before a July 23 deadline, but I haven’t put any more thought into things than “yeah, I should probably do that.” Partially this is the result of putting all my focus on drafting this week, but I suspect it’s also got a lot to do with ambiguous timelines in terms of the work that follows – when do I write the paper? How do I allocate the time I need to get through the “oh crap, is this going to be good enough,” nerves that will inevitably kick in when I start doing something I’ve not done before. I need to devote a little time to thinking this sort of thing through, then get the abstract together.